4 Men Charged in Michael K. Williams’ Fentanyl Overdose Death

Manhattan authorities announced Wednesday that four men who sold fentanyl-laced heroin to acclaimed actor Michael K. Williams have been arrested. Williams was found dead the day after the sale in his apartment, and the cause was determined to be “acute intoxication by the combined effects of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, heroin, and cocaine.”

All four men were arrested and placed in custody on Tuesday, with police saying three were arrested in New York and one was detained in Puerto Rico.

According to the police, the men sold drugs in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The exchange of the deadly dose of heroin took place on September 5, 2021, and was captured by surveillance video. Police began investigating the group after the death was reported.

Even after Williams’ death, something the men apparently were aware of, the same group continued to sell the product they knew was unsafe around apartment building complexes Brooklyn and Manhattan, even in broad daylight.

The defendants include Irvin Cartagena, 39; Hector Robles, 57; Luis Cruz, 56; and Carlos Macci, 70. All four of the men are Brooklyn natives, and according to the investigators have been maintaining a drug trafficking operation since August 2020.

Williams was known best for his performances on HBO dramas The Wire and Boardwalk Empire. His performance as the gay stickup man Omar Little in The Wire was especially revolutionary at a time when high-machismo action movies and cop dramas were the standards. Despite his success and acting ability, Williams struggled through his whole life with drug addiction, which threatened to derail his career and personal life several times.

In announcing the arrests, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said that the spread of fentanyl “is a public health crisis. And it has to stop. Deadly opioids like fentanyl and heroin don’t care about you or what you’ve accomplished. They just feed addiction and lead to tragedy.”